If you run a Mac (like I do) and you also use Office 2008 (like I do) you might have noticed that an extra folder appeared in your Documents folder called Microsoft User Data which shouldn’t have been placed there to begin with.
An added thorn in the eye is that that damned folder gets synced by Live Mesh or Syncplicity every god dang time a file is touched there.
So, I decided to fix yet another of Microsoft’s mistakes:
mv ~/Documents/Microsoft\ User\ Data/ ~/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft/Office/User\ Data/
ln -s ~/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft/Office/User\ Data/ ~/Documents/Microsoft\ User\ Data
This will move the folder to the Application Support part of your own Library (not the system wide one) where it should have been stored to begin with and create a symlink in your Documents folder to the new location so Microsoft Office doesn’t get all confused and whiney.
Why you ask? Besides because it is the correct file-system hierarchy? Because Live Mesh, Syncplicity and other file sync utilities do not follow symlinks. So I can now synchronise my whole Documents folder and its contents without syncing pointless Microsoft data every time with it.
Exactly what I need. To confirm, I run the code you supplied inside of Terminal?
Yes
Thanks!
It moves it to the library, but when word is reopened a new “Microsoft User Data” folder is created in the documents folder. How do I apply that code permanently?
Thanks for your help!
Actually, that is where the second command comes in, the
ln -sbit. That should create a symlink but I see I made a mistake there.The command should have been:
ln -s ~/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft/Office/User\ Data/ ~/Documents/Microsoft\ User\ Data
My mistake, I assumed you would already be in the Documents folder when applying that command but of course that doesn’t have to be the case.
I’m new to a Mac, so forgive me if this is an obvious question. I went through the first command, and it seemed to make a copy of the folder in the specified location. When I went back into my Documents folder via Finder, it still showed the folder in there. The MS User data folder in the Documents folder does have an arrow at the bottom, is that indicating the symlink, and if so, will I have to leave that folder in Documents? Thanks again for posting this, it will definitely help to keep my system organized.
The arrow indeed indicates that it is a symlink or any other kind of shortcut.
You do need to leave it in the Documents folder. If you remove it from there, a new Microsoft User Data folder will be created in your Documents folder whenever you start an Office application as it is required and its location apparently hard-coded into the MS Office Suite.
That’s what I thought, thanks for the confirmation and quick response!
Greetings from Manchester UK
I installed office yesterday and noticed the folder and quite a new be to the world of Mac was amazed how to fix the glitch!
Totally impressed
Cheers
Just a follow up on your nice little structural lesson. Although I agree with the structural setup and it should be within the Application Support directory under the current users library. I think most people here are coming for a solution to hide the thing so they do not see it in their normal gui. Here is a way to hide the folder (this will only work if you are not showing hidden files)
chflags hidden “~/Documents/Microsoft Office User Data”
That’s genius, ta very much buddy!